At the Coface Areana on Saturday evening, a Di Santo brace helped Werder Bremen get their first win of the season in the Bundesliga as they defeated Mainz 05 by a score of 1-2.
The home side started off with a bang as the took the lead within four minutes of the opening whistle. Mainz worked a beauitful counter after winning the ball in their half of the pitch. South Korean midfielder Ja-Cheol Koo hit a sublime through ball to Shinji Okazaki. The Japanese striker made an excellent run inside the eighteen yard box to evade the Werder Bremen deenders as he fired a low shot beyond the reach of the Werder Bremen goalkeeper, Raphael Wolf.
It was not the start that Werder Bremen and new manager, Viktor Skrypnyk, wanted or needed. But it's the one that they got and made of the most of the situation. They had to find ways of getting in behind the Mainz defense, who has been very nice and compact, all season long. The visitors orchestrated a move wonderfully down the pitch with some quick passing and nice off the ball movement, but the final pass was lacking, as it has been all season long.
Three minutes before the half-time interval, Werder Bremen was awarded a penalty after Karius brought down Bartrls inside the area. Argentinian striker Franco Di Santo stepped up to the stop, but Karius saved his effort brilliantly diving low and to his left. However, the rebound bounced straight up and right back to Di Santo who proceeded to head the ball into the empty net to level the match.
As the second half commenced, the visitors were looking very confident and charging up the pitch at any given moment. Di Santo scored an absolutely sublime goal as Bremen deserved their lead. The Argentinian striker raced towards the by-line and Karius came off of his line, Di Santo chipped the ball exquisitly into the bottom right corner of the goal. This gave them a new found confidence that played out the rest of the way. Bremen's defense was very tight and compact the rest of the way, not giving Mainz an ounce of breathing room as the home side looked as if they were out of ideas.